​Hello there folks,

The holiday season is fast approaching once again, and with it comes the Winter. While Winter's coming down the pipes, I find that there's an element of homemaking and care that becomes considerably more important as a result, so I'd like to talk a bit about what you can do to empower yourself and do this more effectively. 

In the States, there's a pretty strong tradition of the Holidays being a time when women work the hardest. They clean the home for guests, cook meals for family, plan outings and get-togethers, coordinate activities for children, and essentially handle the lion's share of all there is to occur and manage at the home. This is HARD work, its important work, and its something that I don't see a whole lot of chatter about in the magical world.

In the Norse traditions, there's an aged Goddess who is both gentle and stern, wonderful and willful. She caretakes the home, handles the hearth, cooks a hell of a meal, and acts as a wonderful hostess. I received direction from her recently while partaking in a Winter Nights rite to honor the departed ancestors. This Goddess asked that I use my position to empower women, as far too little is known or discussed about female deities that aren't either a) sexy and interesting, or b) associated with childbirth and motherhood. There's not much of an in-between getting explored, yet that is where the real magic of maintaining and growing occurs.

As such, I am starting upon this with Frigga, the All-Mother of Norse Heathenry. She's the wife of Odin, the God of War, the Lead of the Wild Hunt, and a God of Runic Sorcery. She's a badass in her own right: she's as fierce as the day is long, as warm as a fire on a winter's day, and as compassionate and loving as any mother should be.

This is a woman and Goddess I personally look up to, as she's taught me many things that I never thought I wanted to know. I've come to her for inspiration around sewing, painting, cooking, mothering my critters, being a better father, and being a better husband. Now, I bring to you a blot (pronounced "bloat") in her honor that you can perform to bring her influence into your home.

"Frigga, All Mother and Wife of Odin, I call out to you this day.
Come to me and enjoy the warmth of my home and space,
Bringing your gifts of wisdom and mature love
So that I might learn from you and better care for my family.

She of the happy hearth and busy hall,
Breadmaker, seamstress, and maker of mead.
Gracious gifter of bounty and bond,
I ask that you join me and help me
Lead my family rightly."

When you've completed this prayer, light a candle for her, pour her some wine, and then start working on home-bound tasks. Cook dinner, budget, play with your kids, as all of these things are sacred to her and are means of invoking her aid. I most strongly find her present when I'm away from work, focusing on mundane tasks that need doing in a consistent, regular fashion.

When I do so, my home becomes a kind of crossroads, and spirit and human alike are left feeling inspired, happier, and more joyous. Its a simple enough thing, but its simple enough to overlook in turn.

Hail Frigga.
-SE

Greetings and happy Monday, ladies and gents. I hope this posting finds you well, or at the very least, awake and functioning.

In my wanderings, ramblings, gnosis, and the latent digestion of such things, I've come to a greater realization with regard to how our folk affect us.  We often spend a great deal of time interacting with others and we often take more than we'd like from people.  This function is something that's programmed into us at a biological level, as evidence by the fact that we even respond to how other people's hearts are beating.  The links for such studies escape me at the moment, but sufficed to say, we are much more intimately linked than we like to admit.

We end up mirroring people we respect as a result of our focus on what they represent to us.  We instinctually try to live up to the ideal they tout in order to become better in their eyes, and that can be a dangerous tendency.  When someone is sufficiently strong-willed, they can project a great deal onto others and do a ridiculous amount of damage to that individual.

Its not at all uncommon for a mental patient, for example, to project his or her disease/disorder onto the doctor or that individual's spouse.  I saw and experienced this firsthand as a child, when my mother's erratic behavior and lack of moral limitation "infected" my father.  Not only did I witness him changing over the years, but I confirmed these changes with my family after the fact. Apparently, before he married my mother, he had a slight "bad streak", but it was never particularly volatile or violent.

We see the same tendency in schools, as noted by my significant other (she's a teacher); when a smart kid hangs out with the would-be thugs, the smart kid's test scores and schoolwork suffers.  If that same student suddenly starts hanging out with a bunch of nerds, his scores improve.

In short, our values are ultimately set by the clan we interact with. If your friends, wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, or some other such individual or group is intensely negative, you will behave the same way as a result of your interactions.  This may not be true initially, but eventually your Will will break down and you will fall in line with your pack.

The same interactions and changes occur with those of us who are religious, spiritually inclined, or to those of us who practice some form of magic involving interacting with spiritual forces.  Our very interactions with those spirits, for weal or woe, changes us on some level.  They, very literally, become a part of  our life and our worldview, changing us from within even if we don't expect it.  Its not particularly abnormal for a practicing mage's IQ to be raised as a result of working with planetary intelligences, for example.

I've personally experienced this over the years, as working with Zazel, for example, has helped me to become better at discerning limitations, exposing them, or strengthening weaknesses, even if this wasn't the goal of the work.  It fits perfectly with His Saturnine nature.

That being the case, we can respond to this external stimuli in a couple of different ways; we can either use this to our benefit, or we can try to run from it and become a hermit. I would suggest that we should use this tendency to our benefit rather than pursue the goal of shielding ourselves from influences from others.  It is, ultimately, futile to do so, as we're trying to escape biologically-programmed functions which help us to interact.

I would recommend that you surround yourself with successful folk that you can look up to and interact.  I'd also recommend that you take it a step further and actually work with spirits that will benefit you in such a way.  If you're looking to cultivate a sense of inner peace, either work with Shiva and Ayra-Tara-Ma or have someone else do the work for you. Just bringing an entity into your sphere can have far-reaching effects for the same reasons listed above.

Furthermore, cut the bad apples off the tree.  Make the sacrifice and move on with your life if someone isn't benefiting you.  Don't sit their and stew; it WILL come back to bite you if you don't heed this advice.  Compassion is great until it drags you down; if it does, it needs to be managed like any other emotion or instinct.

The TL:DR version of this is illustrated pretty well by Hopsin in the following music video:

The long and short of it is that in order to grow, we have to cut loose the anchors that hold us down.  If you want to get somewhere in life, make whatever sacrifices you need to, so long as they'll actually get you somewhere.  If that means that you need to ask for help, realize this and then make it happen.

There are plenty of resources, spiritual teachers, spirit workers, teachers, therapists, business contacts, and potential friends who can help you to change your life for the better.  All you need to do is reach out and work to make that occur.

If you should desire such assistance, contact me and we'll talk. If you're not sure what to do about your situation, but just want to do something general to help fix it, I can probably assist.

Take care and thank you for reading.

Regards,

SE

Greetings, dear readers.

I hope this post finds you well.  I am, for the first time in quite some time, feeling unusually inspired, so I thought I would share my thoughts and ideas with you lot.  :)

The topic of this post, as one'd guess from the title, is creating and using magical powders.

The picture above was taken on Saturday night.  I was working to create a sprinking/incense powder to be used in the endeavor of helping a friend of mine with some of her medical issues, as she's rather fragile in that department.

The plant you can see balanced on the knife is know as bloodroot, and it is a sacred plant to various native American tribes.  Its a plant I know the spirit behind, and I've worked with it for several years, so I feel comfortable working it in to the mixture.

That being the case, I cut bits and pieces off until I felt as though I had enough and then mixed in other herbs that were appropriate to the work at hand, using things that were easily accessible.  This is an arena wherein herb and spirit knowledge is more-or-less mandatory.  You'll find that if you gather herbs from your property or area, you'll connect with the spirit of the land too, so this is an exercise in learning as well.

This picture of the jar is a pic of the finished product, with all of the associated herbs mixed in.  From there, I stuck it on my altar and let it charge.

My examples provided, you can do the same sort of work if you feel so inclined.  As indicated above, this is an exercise that does require a bit of knowledge beforehand, but it also will serve to deepen your understanding of the areas around your home, the spirits therein, and, eventually, the much "larger" spirits that preside over each plant.  It takes a great deal of patience to work on this sort of thing, but it is intensely useful, as it does increase your sphere of influence.

If you're unsure where to start, I would suggest doing some research on the web to see what flora grow in your area, and then learn how to work with them: learn what they do on both the physical and the spiritual sides of things.  Once you have that basic knowledge, start harvesting (respectfully!) and making it into your own mixture.

When I say "harvest this respectfully", I mean that you should give offerings equal to what you are taking, and be sure not to harm the plant in question, lest your work take on a darker meaning and get you on a spirit's short list.

When all's been gathered, macerated, chopped, and so on and so forth, stick it in a jar of your choosing and procure a candle.

Get comfortable, stick yourself in your metaphysical happy place, light the candle, and invoke or evoke the spirits appropriate to the goal of the work.  In my case, with the herb mixture I created over the weekend, I invoked Zoroel, Sabrael, and Raphael during the creation of the mixture, and it showed within 24 hours.

Finally, have fun! Hope that helps!

Regards,

SE

Greetings once again, dear readers.

This, I'll admit, has been a long time coming - I've been intending to write about some of my experiments with Geoff Gray Cobb's "The Miracle of New Avatar Power" for quite some time, but never got around to it 'til now.

Now, some of you might be aware of this book and what it contains, but by and large, the majority of you probably have no idea what the heck I'm referring to. The book (linked above) is a smallish modern grimoire that is, largely, filled with a smattering of hype and magical praxis that is surprisingly effective in today's day and age. The trick is filtering through the sales pitch and finding the gooey goodness that is made from distilling each of the methods therein.  Coming to understand the reason for the simplicity is strikingly beneficial.

That said, I've been experimenting with it, on and off, for the better part of a few years now with varying degrees of success, depending on the arena.  I've also got my ass handed to me by the spirits therein - Elubatel is, admittedly, a bit of a prick, but she's a prick because that's what I wanted.  To illustrate this point, I felt it would be a good idea to cross-post an excerpt I penned over at EvocationMagic.  I also discussed this previously in my blog post titled Depression when working with Elubatel:

"Well, as the title indicates, this thread is about insight I've managed to glean that has everything to do with depression caused by work with Elubatel. For those interested in reading my blog post about this, click here. I am posting it here as well, as it seemed to be plenty important.

The long and short of it is this: Over the past 2 weeks I've had several very odd, instant-karma-like things happening. Its been incredibly frustrating, and probably has everything to do with the work I do for clients. My girlfriend ended up getting exposed to a material she's incredibly allergic to, so I had to take her to the hospital. A day later, my passenger-side front tire had been punctured, so I had to replace two tires. The day after that, more car trouble...I had to take the car into the shop to get an oil change and whatnot. Later that day, I found out that the company that replaced my tires broke the TPMS sensors. And later still, my puppy had to be put down because she had distemper. All-in-all, its been a royal pain in the ass of a couple of weeks, but that got me thinking.

I went through the protection and upkeep checklist I keep, and I found that the one thing that really needed to be done again was a success rite. So, that said, I did my usual preparations and conjured up Elubatel. Mid oration, I realized that I had better backtrack and ask Her a question (yes, She appears to me as a female...dunno why that is, as others seem to have a different view). Specifically, I wanted to know why every time I worked with her, I suddenly got depressed after the fact. Every time, I'd be a whiny little bitch of a man for the next few days for no apparent reason, and I'd always be in a funk that I just couldn't shake myself of. Well, in talking with Her, I discovered that She's granting us success, in open-ended requests, by giving us what our subconscious wants the most. In some people, that just happens to be a reason to tear ourselves down. No idea why it is, but apparently I have that deep-seated masochistic urge, which is rather interesting.

That, of course, leads me to two realizations and boons:
1) I know myself a bit better.
2) I basically just got thumped and told to be more specific.

It certainly made for an interesting reminder, and I thought I'd share it with you folks."

Having said as much, this is one of many such mind-blowing realizations that I've had from working in the system.  That being the case, I am, going forward, hoping to perform more experiments from this book on behalf of my clients, and for my own reasons.

For a limited time, I will be doing the workings from NAP for clients at the cost of 100$, regardless of the spell.  I will choose who I do these workings for, as always, and I will be posting the results here after removing any of the personal data.

Below are the names of the various applicable workings per GCC's Compendium:

- Astral Bomb Attack Ritual
- Psychic Guided Missile Ritual
- The Etheric Shrapnel Ritual
- The Occult Judo Ritual
- The Theurgic Booby-Trap Ritual
- Exorcism to Repel Evil Spirits
- The Attack Cancellation Ritual
- Incantation for Winning Contests
- Invocation for Money
- Chant to Bring Success
- Win a Legal Action Invocation
- Invocation from Protection From Evil
- Chant to Excite Love
- Rekindle a Mate's Interest Incantation
- Invocation to Bring Secret Knowledge
- Chant to Bring Health
- Incantation to Give Power Over Others
- General Purpose Invocation
- Vital Bring-Me-Wealth Spell
- The Enterprising Ace-King Spell
- The Terrific Win-It-All Spell
- The Tantalizing New-Strength Spell
- The Occult Seduction Spell
- The Psychic Sex-Appeal Spell
- The Tremendous Beauty-Is-Mine Spell
- The Stupendous Young-Again Spell
- The Exciting Brilliance-For-Me Spell
- The Haunting Horror-Producing Spell
- The Crushing Disharmony-Exercising Spell
- The Staggering Return-Evil-to-Source Spell
- The New Opposition-Begone Spell
- The New Shattering Partnership-Disruption Spell
- The Mighty Attackers-Confusion Spell
- The Instant Business-Success Spell
- The Ancient Fame-and-Honors Spell
- The Fantastic Win-At-Law Spell
- The Glorious Move-Up-In-Life Spell
- The Wonderful Money-Aid Spell
- The Startling Come-From-Above Spell
- The Expansive Bring-Me-Excitement Spell
- The Certain Danger-Stay-Away Spell
- The Brilliant Travel-Safely Spell
- The Reliable Know-the-Unknown Spell
- The Protective Magic-Away Spell
- The Rewarding Ticket-Come-To-Me Ritual
- The Overwhelming Good-Luck-is-Mine Ritual
- The Great Money-Spinning Ritual
- The Miraculous Gold-Creating Ritual
- The Titillating Nature Ritual
- The Irresistible Bring-A-Lover Spell
- The  Stimulating Partner-Enslaving Ritual
- The Supreme Back-to-Health Ritual
- The Secret Disease-Banishing Ritual
- The Fast Unwinding Ritual
- The Explosive Eye-Glance Ritual
- The Magical Win-in-Battle Ritual
- The Volcanic You-Will-Submit Ritual
- The Titanic Enemies-Vanquished Ritual
- The Astounding Change-Opinions-of-Others Ritual
- The Powerful Take-Me-to-the-Top Ritual
- The Forceful Buy-Sell Ritual
- The Automatic Test-Success Ritual
- The Delightful Tell-Me-My-Powers Ritual
- The Thrilling I-Can-Wow-Them Ritual
- The Unique Know-What-Comes Ritual
- The Marvellous See-Where Ritual
- The Ideal Change-My-Home Ritual
- The Flashing Cause-Discord Ritual
- The Arcane Invisibility Ritual
- The Genuine Bad-Luck-Banishing Ritual
- The Mysterious Enemy-Repulsion Ritual

The process for this is simple.  Use the "Contact Me" page and drop me a line letting me know what you would like done. I will send you an invoice, and then do the working on the appropriate day and time.  From that point forward, you will report your experiences to me, and I will record them here on the blog.

Thanks for reading!  Take care,

SE